


Peace and Quiet

by Mad_Scientist_JC



Series: Mad Science for Hire [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, Mad Science, Mad Scientists, Science Fiction, Urban Fantasy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-17 12:01:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28974009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mad_Scientist_JC/pseuds/Mad_Scientist_JC
Summary: J.C.'s night goes from bad to worse as he takes on a routine request from the Mad Scientist's Union to check on a fellow mad scientist that has been too quiet for too long.
Series: Mad Science for Hire [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2125212





	Peace and Quiet

J.C. blinked and rubbed his eyes as he stared at the screen. He blinked them clear. The screen’s brightness adjusted down at his thought.  
“Coordinate locked. Adjusting teleportation for slight movement. Prepare to launch.” J.C. commanded and stepped onto the pad. He stretched his shoulder, and got ready for the shift.  
“J.C. are you sure?” Nicky’s holograph shimmered into view.  
“Yes. Nothing is out of the ordinary here. It’s an easy job. If I take too long with it, others will notice. Now send me.”  
“But,”  
“Now!” J.C. glared at Nicky. He ignored the twinge of guilt at her flinch. Her look of concern dropped and shifted to all business.  
“Sending now. Emergency recall will be ready in five minutes. Preferred window is fifteen.” Nicky’s image disappeared. The machine burst to life, the split second wormhole engulfed him. J.C. was gone from the cool, climate controlled air of his lab to the hot, sticky night air of a tropical island. He rubbed at his arm as if that would get the feeling off his skin. He tugged at his shirt pull it away from his body. The sharp crack of his teleportation echo into the night. As that sound settled, nature came in to replace it. J.C. couldn’t place what animal or insects were making the racket around him, but there were too many of them. He walked from the edge of the beach into the small forest of the island. He headed for the only thing of note on the island from the satellite photos. J.C. found it quickly on the small island, a crystal clear pond with a small cave in a hill nearby.  
“Source of clean water, and shelter, the first place anyone that stranded here would come to.” J.C. thought aloud. He entered the cave, damp but cooler than outside, quieter as well. His gauntlets unfolded onto his arms and hands, a sensor disc fit into place on the back of his left. He touched the cave wall and pinged. The ping gave him the breakdown of the cave on his H.U.D. Dirt, mud, rock, and then at the back of the cave, metal. He looked over the section, tapped his hand against it the clang of metal on metal. J.C. moved his left hand across the surface until he tapped into the control pad. His H.U.D. played with the programming that controlled the elevator call button, code from his disc seeped in, overwrote and overrode. J.C. sent the command for the elevator. A warning signal flashed in his face. J.C. flinched. He ramped up the hacking program, less subtle but quicker, and called for the elevator again. Warning signal. J.C. grit his teeth. He took a deep breath, activated the final hacking program, and called. He jerked his hand away before warning flashed again. He shot two discs onto the door, and jumped back. The explosions rocked the cave and tore the doors off the elevator. Another disc shot onto the exposed motor at the top of the elevator shaft and the elevator was coming. The inner doors opened and J.C. stepped in. As soon as they shut, a speaker played some nondescript muzack.  
“Really?” J.C. reached up and tore the speaker out of the ceiling. Just calm and quiet, for a few minutes the elevator descended. Shattered by screaming klaxons and flashing lights as soon as they doors opened below. J.C. shielded his eye, his ears rang.  
“Quiet!” He slammed his hand onto the panel by the door, his hacking programs finally broke though, and the entire complex shut down. He sighed and collected himself. “Let’s get this over with.” Emergency lights flickered on. The complex still and dark. J.C. shoulders unknot. He knew what he was going to find at this point, so nothing was likely to break the new peace and quiet. J.C. found the security room, still lit by the monitors on the same emergency power. Not a soul on any screen, despite a known staff of 130 under Dr. Krieschner.  
“Where’s your office, Doctor?” J.C. asked as he scrolled through different cameras to build a mental map of the sub. He found the one room that didn’t have a camera in it. “There you are.”  
The walk back to the office was a long one. Through dark, quiet… narrow corridors. Shadows flickered at the corner of his vision. The quiet rang in his ears now. J.C. cycled through the disc and ammunition he had on hand, busy work to keep his mind and hands busy. He found the door he needed. Wooden, ornate, and locked… J.C. took a step back and kicked it. The frame and lock held strong, but the wood exploded into splinters. J.C. stepped through and found, something, in a chair. The thing was covered in shadow, its shape wrong, not moving. J.C. touched it with his sensor hand. He got a quick DNA scan. Gene mutated, and broken, but enough left to identify Krieschner, and some mix of sea life DNA. No life signs. J.C. pushed the chair out of the way and the body flopped to the floor. J.C. transmitted all the data he could from the computer. As he was transferring he took a deep breath and mentally prepared for the call in. He kept his tone even as he contacted the Union systems.  
“This is J.C. Carter, Rank Beta, confirming the death of Vergil Krieschner, Rank Gamma. I’m claiming Scavengers rights.”  
“Acknowledged. Will Krieschner’s staff be moving under you as well?”  
“No,” J.C. pulled up recent files on his H.U.D. Kriesnher descent ended with all his staff becoming test subjects for him. “No survivors from his staff.”  
“Acknowledged. Congratulations,”  
J.C. cut the call there. He was ready to go back home. Yelling and guns pointed at him broke that train of thought. J.C. annoyance spiked. He had been sloppy, and missed some survivors.  
“Out in the hall Mad Scientist!” A masked soldier commanded. These weren’t Krieschner’s. Outside team, that must have been watching the island. They followed as soon as J.C. disabled all the systems. J.C.’ annoyance shifted to them now, and was building.  
“Who are you?”  
“You don’t need to know who we are! Just that we know who you are!” The Mouthpiece Soldier shouted. J.C. groaned, a headache forming.  
“If you knew anything you’d know better than to be here pointing guns at me.” J.C. kept his voice low, threat obvious. He tried to look over their gear, and get some idea of which government sent out their cannon fodder hoping to get lucky taking in a lab and mad scientist. American? Russian? He grit his teeth, his mind just wouldn’t play along. J.C. let out a disgusted sigh. Another soldier flinched and pulled the trigger. The shot echoed in J.C.’s head as the bullet hit his shield. Sparks flew, but the bullet dropped to the floor. The rest of the soldiers looked rattled as the Mouthpiece barked at them to stay calm. J.C. felt something give way. He snatched the flattened slug off the desk. Held it up to examine it, for effect.  
“Shield breakers? Oh nooooo, don’t tell me this hand me down garbage is why you thought you had a chance? Against me? If anyone you’re working for thought this would be enough, then I need to fix that.” J.C. dropped the bullet to the floor. He slowly looked to the soldiers, his eyes sparked and glowed green in the dim emergency lights. The soldiers fell back, a pair stayed at the door and opened fire. The bullets sparked off his shield. His H.U.D. kept J.C. aware of how much power the super conductor bullets were pulling as they tried to short out his shield. J.C. stalked to the pair at the door. Slow, steady, give them plenty of time to see how worthless their equipment was against him. Their guns clicked empty, and they tried to scramble out, but J.C. caught both of them by their necks as he stepped out into the hall. He held them out to use them as human shields. They struggled in his grip, but J.C. just tightened his hold. His sensor disc in his left told him the soldiers had personal protection shields as well. He scanned the frequency, got the information he needed and tossed the pair at the grouping of the soldiers down the hall.  
“Don’t let up! His shields can’t stop the breakers forever! Enough will get through!” Mouthpiece shouted. The soldiers scrambled to line up shots and opened up with a barrage. J.C. stood there for a moment. Mouthpiece wasn’t wrong, the breakers couldn’t short out his shield, but they were heavy on the power drain. Some might make it through at some point. J.C. waited long enough for the bullets to pile at his feet, the noise and impacts made his headache worse, his muscles tense, but he needed to make sure they saw him. Nonplussed, untouchable, and finally, J.C. stepped to them in the hail of gun fire, unstoppable. With a lazy swipe of his arm, J.C. shot out a line of discs, shielding discs, coupled with taser discs. They passed through their shields effortlessly, since the frequencies matched, found their marks and crumpled the soldiers into twitching messes. Mouthpiece was still on his feet, J.C. had to drive his point home now. Mouthpiece tossed his rifle down, and drew his sidearm. J.C. was too close now, he caught the hand and the gun and twisted. Mouthpiece’s arm snapped. J.C. lifted him up, and stared into the goggle of his mask, and could see Mouthpiece’s eyes, the fear. Good.  
“Make sure the people that you work for know that I have no patience for pointless distractions. If you bother me again, I’ll visit them. Understood?” J.C. locked eyes with MouthPiece. He just moaned and nursed his broken arm, but didn’t answer. J.C. was about to make him when he heard something shift. Mouthpiece had something in his broken hand. J.C. recognized a detonator. He dropped Mouthpiece and leapt back. He tried to think about the best places to lay explosives? Why would they risk destroying the lab? That was the main goal. The downed soldiers shouting no brought J.C.’s attention back to them as Mouthpiece hit the button and they painted the walls. The sub shook at the explosion, metal creaked, the pressure of the water on the outside pushing in now. J.C. was frozen for a moment, too many questions running at once, he just stared. The sub shook again, ocean water broke in, and rose. It snapped him out of his trance. He sent the return signal, just as a wall of water rushed in and hit him.  
J.C. staggered back on the teleportation pad, hacking up sea water, soaking wet. He got to his hand and knees and coughed up saltwater. He noticed the water on the pad was tinged pink, washing off the bits of the soldiers that had hit him when he didn’t even notice.  
“J.C. are you all right?” Nicky burst into view. The sudden light bothered J.C.’s eyes.  
“Fine, ran into complications. I’m going to shower.” J.C. pulled at his clothes. The feeling of them sticking to him too much. He fought and tore the wet clothes off and tossed them aside as he headed for the shower. He was stripped by the time he made it there, the shower already running and steaming. J.C. grabbed the soap, and scrubbed at his body, and kept going until he felt sure that he’s gotten off any bits of the soldiers that may have hit him. J.C. sighed and leaned against the shower wall and let the hot water run over him. To melt away any tension he could. Any sort of relaxation. He felt heavy, tired.  
“Four more days, four more, a day of nightmares, and then, maybe some peace and quiet.”


End file.
